Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Lungwort lichen is a leafy, green-brown lichen that grows on old trees. It is not a plant. A lichen is a fungus and an alga living as one body.
It needs clean, damp air, so it grows in old woodland. The German name is Lungenflechte, meaning lung lichen. The ridged, pitted surface reminded old herbalists of lung tissue, so they used it for coughs and chest trouble.
Here is the honest verdict. There are no good human trials on this lichen for any health use. Long traditional use is not proof that it works, and it is not proof that it is safe.
Nobody has shown how, or whether, this lichen helps the human chest.
In test tubes, lichen acids such as stictic acid slow the growth of some bacteria. Lab work also finds antioxidant activity in its extracts. Whether any of that happens in a person who drinks a lichen tea is unknown.
The lichen holds sugary polysaccharides and mucilage. In theory, mucilage coats a sore throat, which is how many soothing teas work. This is a reasonable idea, not a tested one.
Some lab studies report that lichen polysaccharides nudge immune cells. That is a cell-dish finding. It does not tell you what happens in your lungs.
Folk use also leaned on its strong bitter taste. Bitters were thought to wake up appetite and digestion. That idea comes from tradition, not from trials of this species.
You will mostly meet it as dried, whole lichen sold loose by herb suppliers.
Common forms:
- Dried lichen for tea or a simmered decoction - Alcohol tinctures - An ingredient in blended cough teas - Capsules or powders, which are rare
It has non-medical uses too. It was once used to tan leather and to dye wool brown. Brewers in parts of Europe and Siberia used it as a bitter in beer before hops took over.
Supply is a real issue. The lichen grows slowly and is now scarce in much of Europe. Wild picking is restricted or banned in several countries.
European herbalists adopted it under the doctrine of signatures. That old idea held that a plant's shape hinted at what it treated. A lung-shaped lichen was therefore read as a lung remedy.
It appears in European herbals from the 1500s onward. Folk healers used it in teas for coughs, hoarseness, asthma and what was then called consumption, meaning tuberculosis. It was also used as a bitter tonic for poor appetite.
Rural use carried on into the 1800s and early 1900s in Germany, Austria, Scandinavia and parts of Britain. Some North American peoples used related lichens too. None of this record amounts to a test of whether it works.
Stop and see a doctor if a cough lasts more than three weeks, or if it comes back again and again.
Get urgent medical help for any of these:
- You are short of breath or your chest feels tight - You cough up blood - You have chest pain or a high fever - Your skin or the whites of your eyes turn yellow - You have dark urine with nausea and deep tiredness - A rash spreads, or your lips, tongue or face swell
Tell your doctor or pharmacist that you took a lichen product. It is unusual, and they will not guess.
It is not an approved medicine in the UK, the EU or the US. It is sold as a dried herbal ingredient in some countries and as a supplement in others. In several European countries, including Germany and parts of Scandinavia, it is a protected or red-listed species and picking it from the wild may be illegal.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
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